Drawing Software- An alternative to CAD

[monkeypuzzle22]

Hi Guy's,

 

I just thought i'd do a bit of research before jumping into the decision of purchasing CAD. What drawing packages/software do you use for creating Scale Plans? I am looking for something cost effective and pretty straight forward to use??

 

Any help would be appreciated...thanks!

[Brushcutter]

Where i use to work we used Corel Draw X3 to do plans for garden design and things. The guy who did use to be a pro designer though. I used for designing big written signs that we would print off on the line printer and then route into large bits of milled wood.

[monkeypuzzle22]

I have used Corel before and found it very useful...my problem is i don't have the capacity (on my laptop) to run CAD and i am not suitably trained in its use!

[Gord]

Google Sketchup is free and will do a lot.

[niftysteve]

Google Sketchup is free and will do a lot.

 

ditto that my neighbour has drawn all his plaans for his extension and got them passed with SKETCHUP

[Arborowen]

Google Sketchup is free and will do a lot.

 

 

 

ditto that my neighbour has drawn all his plaans for his extension and got them passed with SKETCHUP

 

Its all good and well using a drawing package for small scale TPO Aps etc and if your good you can get cad drawings sent to you in PDF, (by the client), then you can open the pdf. in Photoshop and add your tree points.

 

This method could be inaccurate if working on a small site. Errors in the tree positions wrong could cause confusion and get on the wrong side if planning. It will also win you a bad Rep.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk

[Will Hinchliffe]

Its all good and well using a drawing package for small scale TPO Aps etc and if your good you can get cad drawings sent to you in PDF, (by the client), then you can open the pdf. in Photoshop and add your tree points.

 

This method could be inaccurate if working on a small site. Errors in the tree positions wrong could cause confusion and get on the wrong side if planning. It will also win you a bad Rep.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk

 

Just write a big "DO NOT SCALE FROM THIS DRAWING" on anything you produce.

[markiesla]

There is a freebie out there at the mo called AutoCAD WS Autodesk - AutoCAD WS . It is basically AutoCAD as a web service. It doesn't have the full AutoCAD functionality - but it does offer a lot for adding to exisitng drawings etc and sharing those details.

 

I have had a play with it and like what it does but it may not do everything you need.

 

I also had a look at ZWCAD when I was at the Arb Assoc conf and this did seem pretty comprehensive and relatively inexpensive. However, I haven't spoken to a user and, of course, the comments from a user often gives a much better insight than those of a salesperson:001_tt2:

 

I have also heard very positive comments about BricsCAD but again cannot comment from personal experience.

 

It can be dificult to strike the balance between CAD and Graphics. Is your intention to producte accurate scale plans or a very pretty picture? If you are using AutoCAD - the addition of M-Color technology really brings the graphics presentation side into the CAD environment with so much style and flair it is hard to beleieve it is an AutoCAD drawing - but AutoCAD is expensive....

 

Would you like your clients to be able to annotate or markup your scale plans ? Or do you simply want to produce & publish them? Can you "collaborate" as they call it with the software?

 

Sorry if this is throwing a spanner in the works....

[sjarthur]

I'd have a look at draft sight if you want something free, very good indeed!

[teepeeat]

Turbocad is significantly cheaper than Autocad, but there are quite a lot of free offerings out there if you google. Sketchup also already been mentioned